This invention relates to a process for the production of activated carbon fibers.
Activated carbon fibers are generally produced from polyacrylonitrile fibers, cellulose fibers, cured novolak resin fibers and carbonaceous pitch fibers. Because of their high adsorption power and of easiness to be formed into desired shapes such as cloth, sheet or felt like forms, activated carbon fibers are utilized in a wide variety of applications.
One problem associated with known activated carbon fibers relates to their expensiveness which is attributed to low yield of the carbon fibers in known processes for the production thereof. For example, when activated carbon fibers having a BET specific surface area of 2,500 m.sup.2 /g or more are intended to be produced using the above precursor fibers by conventional processes, the yield is as low as about 15%.